Melange
by Laura Schiller
Summary: A shuffle play exercise: ten drabbles for ten random songs. Anna/Etienne and other canon relationships.


Melange

By Laura Schiller

Based on: Anna and the French Kiss

Copyright: Stephanie Perkins

1. "J'avais revé d'une autre vie" ("I Dreamed A Dream"), performed by Katherine Jenkins

Susan St. Clair dreamed of a life of privilege and love, a life by the side of her beautiful, charming husband and her beloved little boy. A life where her art would be successful for its own sake and not her husband's influence, where she would never be abandoned, betrayed, humilated or left alone.

Instead she has this life – a lead-lined hospital room, chemotherapy gnawing at her bones, her hair falling out, her husband more dominant in his absence than he ever was in his presence.

But there is Etienne, she tells herself. Etienne makes this life worth it.

For him, if nothing else, she must survive.

2. "Bochum", by Herbert Groenemeyer

After living in Paris, though she hates to admit it, Anna is a little bit ashamed of Atlanta. The skyscrapers appear crude to her, nothing but childlike competitions for size; the greasy, red-faced, overweight people on the streets appal her compared to the stylish Parisians. She even tries to suppress her Southern accent, only to be teased by Etienne when it slips out anyway.

But Atlanta is where her mother lives, and Seany, and even Bridge despite their argument. It's where she earned her first salary at the movie theatre, wrote her first reviews, where she – in effect - became the person Etienne chose to befriend on that first day.

Despite all her complaints, she knows Atlanta, Georgia will always be her home.

3. "Sparks Fly", by Taylor Swift

It's wrong and dangerous, but she can't stop. Etienne is taken, but she can't resist; he quirks an eyebrow at her, smiles that smile and she knows she'll follow him anywhere. His leg touching hers in the dark movie theatre; his warm sleeping body in the dorm room; his wet hair under her fingers; every touch, no matter how casual, is enough to send sparks flying through her like fireworks.

Can she be the only one feeling this? Can it be possible that he doesn't feel the same need that she does, the need to run out and kiss her in the pouring rain?

But if he does, for God's sake, why won't he finally make a move?

4. "Je t'aime" ("I Love You"), by Lara Fabian

There must, Ellie reflects, be better ways to leave each other than this.

St-Clair is so quiet, so mature, almost businesslike. For the sake of her pride, so is she. It must appear very civilized to a bystander, but the truth is, she longs to fire one of her bowls from her ceramics class at him, and for him to yell and throw something back. Anything but this calm. It's as if he doesn't even care, as if he left her long ago.

Which, if she is honest with herself, he did.

She loves him like a king loves his crown, like a wolf his wild forest, like a soldier his country. Like the little girl she has tried so hard not to be, clinging to an old doll that's falling apart at the seams. She loves him, but she can no longer reach him.

Which is, she knows, exactly why she needs to let him go.

5. "Ordinary Day", by Vanessa Carlton

He is just a boy, just an ordinary boy. One who reads history and unearths all the gruesome and fascinating details, jokes about his height and his adorable accent, claims no nationality, and can change my life without even trying. He held out his hand and showed me Paris, from Point Zero to its bakeries and cinemas and bookstores, and as the beauty of the city unfolded itself before my eyes, so did his. I would swear he was the best dream I'd ever had … if I hadn't just woken up in his arms.

Etienne St-Clar, ordinary? To others, maybe … but never to me.

6. "Before Your Love", by Kelly Clarkson

Sometimes Etienne wonders how he ever made it through a day without Anna. Oh, he had Josh and Mer and Rashmi and even Ellie, and most of all he had his mother – but where was he without that quirky sense of humor that matched his like a hand in a glove, that unique mix of compassion and challenge that pushed him out of his room when he was depressed, the intellectual spark that could fire an argument for hours? Where would he be without Anna's small hand in his, her sunny gap-toothed smile, that blond stripe shining in her chestnut hair and the taste of her lips?

When his world fell to pieces around him, he will never forget that it was Anna who held him together. For that alone, he will always love her.

7. "Better Than Revenge" by Tayor Swift

It's stupid and mean and all kinds of illogical, she knows, but Meredith Chevalier isn't feeling logical right now. What she feels is furious – with a hint of bitter admiration for Anna's acting skills.

Mer remembers a time when _she_ was the one Etienne went to in times of trouble, the one who made him wear his scarf in the cold and made him laugh, the one he complimented about her ring collection and her football playing. Then Anna stole him – slowly, neatly, and oh so innocently, she stole his time, his attention and finally his heart. Watching them make out by the fountain in the Jardin du Luxembourg still makes her sick.

Weeks later, she will come to realize that Anna is as much a victim of circumstance as she is – but for now, she buries her face in her pillow and contemplatesa dozen useless plans for revenge.

8. "Will I Ever Learn" by Herbert Groenemeyer

Would it be so bad for a heart to break, Etinne wonders, when it's half broken already?

He's been holding on to the scraps and tatters of his relationship with Ellie for the longest time, afraid to hurt her, afraid to let go. But when he thinks of Anna's tearful, drunken outburst at the nightclub, Ellie's icy fury later that evening, and the toxic cloud he's been moving through for almost the entire past year, he wonders if, perhaps, his hesitation has hurt all three of them more than anything else. And not just the three of them, either – Rashmi is irritated on Anna's behalf, Josh is tired of his complaining, and Mer … he doesn't want to think of what this is doing to Mer. Is he urning into his father, leading women on with no thought of consequences? Does his father also find this pattern difficult to break?

_Will I ever figure out the right thing to do?_ he asks himself. _And will I ever learn to do it?_

9. "Who Knew" by P!nk

If someone had told Bridgette Sanderwick three years ago that her best friend Anna would start ignoring her calls, she would have punched them out. Seriously. She and Anna were like sisters; Toph wasn't the only one who had remarked on it. Anna had always been the only one who admired Bridge's drumming, who thought her OED habit was funny instead of pretentious, who told her all her secrets and expected the same in return.

But that was before. Before Bridge had fallen in love with her sexy punk-rocker of a bandmate, before the truth had come out in the worst possible way, and Anna had yet to forgive her. Bridge couldn't blame her. She found it hard to forgive herself as well.

When the little Pont Neuf model came in the mail, she cried over it for what felt like hours. Trust Anna to fall into the same type of love triangle twice, only on opposite angles. Anna/Toph/Bridge. Meredith/Etienne/Anna. Who knew that one year in Paris would make everything so complicated?

10. "Generation Away" by Lady Antebellum

"I'm serious," Mer argues, waving her ring-sparkling hands. "The sixties were the best decade ever! They had the Beatles - "

"Of course, you and your Beatles!" Anna jokingly rolls his eyes. "They're not the only band in the world, you know. One Direction for the win!"

"As if! Martin Luther King – "

"The Occupy movement," Josh counters.

"Oh please! No twitter, no spam, no computer viruses – "

"No computers _period._" Rashmi looks up from her MacBook. "Which means no soccer reruns on YouTube, either."

Mer pouts and falls backwards onto her bed, making them all laugh.

"Why don't we agree to disagree, then?" Etienne asks civilly, holding up his mug of _chocolat chaud_ in a toast. "To a new generation – as creative, as hopeful, and as memorable as the ones that came before."

They all hold up their mugs, and Etienna and Anna share a secret smile. For them, at least, the year 2012 will never be forgotten.

"Cheers!"


End file.
